


fourteen ways to give your dad grey hairs

by niick



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Bisexual Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Canon Asexual Character, I rub my little trans hands over every character, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Wears a Skirt, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist With a Cane, Jonathan Stims!!!!, M/M, Multi, No beta we kayak like Tim, Nonbinary Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, They/Them Pronouns for Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Tim Stoker Has ADHD (The Magnus Archives), Tim Stoker Lives (The Magnus Archives), Trans Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Trans Martin Blackwood, as in Annabelle said these idiots need a woman in the house, as in chaos ensues, rated T for possible language, said daughter is an avatar of The Everything because plot, the JMT trio adopt a daughter, they are all neurodivergent I will die on this hill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niick/pseuds/niick
Summary: "The thing in the stroller giggled and wrapped a tiny, dark hand around their fingers, and their frown softened. They paused for just a moment before lifting the girl into their shaky, uncertain arms, smiling a thin and uncomfortable smile down at the child in front of them."In which Jon, Martin, and Tim adopt a little avatar daughter, and things go a bit crazy.
Relationships: Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Tim Stoker
Comments: 33
Kudos: 78





	1. The Web

**Author's Note:**

> hello forget ANY of my wips exist for a moment please because I have had zero writing motivation and school has been,,, really testing me,,, but here we go! Decided to start posting this one, so lets see if I can keep up another multi-chapter fic since... AB went so swimmingly haha
> 
> Anyways I don't write enough JMT content and I'd die for them so here you go! Enjoy me struggling to write children!!

* * *

Jon was startled out of sleep by a dull buzzing in the back of their head.

They took a moment to collect themself - they were in the house they shared with Martin and Tim. They had fallen asleep in their chair over a book and a mug of tea, Martin half asleep on the couch next to them with a half-finished knitting project clutched limply in his freckled hands. Tim was still at the hospital, working the third late shift this week - the house felt empty and quiet without him.

The rain outside hadn’t let up, still clattering against the roof and pressing against the windows like an animal waiting to be let inside.

The buzzing grew more insistent, that fuzzy, staticy feeling right behind his eyes that they begrudgingly let flow over them. It flickered inside of them for a moment, thrumming through their veins and opening thin, peering eyes on their arms, before ebbing away and leaving its Knowledge behind.

With a sigh and a groan, Jon stood up to check the door.

The wind whirled around them, scattering raindrops across their cardigan and pressing cold into their joints. It was a miserable night that set Jon’s bad knee aching, the moon and stars hidden both by a thick soup of clouds. The warm yellow of the street lights flickered, for just a moment, and then there was a stroller on the porch in front of them.

They knelt in front of it, curiosity spinning through their mind. The dampness of the concrete quickly soaked into the knees of their skirt but they didn’t mind, reaching out a scarred hand to brush aside the gingham blanket which obscured the object in front of them.

The thing in the stroller giggled and wrapped a tiny, dark hand around their fingers, and their frown softened. They paused for just a moment before lifting the girl into their shaky, uncertain arms, smiling a thin and uncomfortable smile down at the child in front of them.

She smiled back up at them with soft brown eyes, her body still warm despite the seeping chill of the rain that lashed against her frizzy curls. She giggled again and put their finger in her mouth - _sturdy baby teeth, so she’s three at the youngest -_ chewing at their scarred skin with reckless abandon. They felt the tension slowly drain out of their shoulders.

Their eyes flickered to the stroller again and they grimaced at the spiderweb pattern on the blanket. _So that was why they couldn’t see anything about her,_ they thought. 

They were about to turn and head back indoors when a sliver of white caught their eye, nestled deep amongst the padding. They bent carefully around the child to pick up the slip of paper, turning it over in their fingers to read the steadily dampening words.

_Adelaide_ , the card read, spelled out in thin, spidery handwriting. Underneath that, in a script that was practically smug in nature, read; _For you and those lovely men of yours! Thought you could use some more joy in the house :) With love, Annabelle._ Their frown deepened at the scrawled signature and they paused again, caught in indecision out in the rain.

_Is she dangerous?_ They thought, worrying their bottom lip between theur teeth, _Or is she just an innocent child that got caught up in all of this mess?_ The choice was made for them as the door at his back creaked open, a bleary-eyed Martin stepping out and already smiling at the child in their arms.

“Well hello there!” he murmured, voice soft and husky with sleep. “And who might this be?”

Martin shot Jon a quizzical little smile, holding out his hands to pull the child into his welcoming arms. Jon carefully extracted their fingers from her teeth with a grimace and handed her over. The girl - Adelaide - snuggled up against Martin’s jumper with a little happy sigh, and Jon’s heart turned to mush at the sight of them. They handed the card wordlessly to Martin, whose eyes widened as he scanned the writing.

“We’d better get you inside then,” Martin mumbled into her curls, pressing a gentle kiss onto the top of her head. His eyes flickered up to meet Jon’s and he nodded slowly, careful not to disturb the child in his arms. Jon smiled back at him, the crease of worry between their eyebrows softening out into something relaxed and hopeful.

They turned to get the stroller and followed the two of them into their flat, shaking the water from their hair as they shut the door behind them.

\-----

Tim arrived home a few hours later to find his husbands snuggled up together on the couch, a small, sleeping child between them. His shock was abated by the warmth that welled up in his chest at the sight, and he hung his coat with a smile.

The little girl opened her eyes, still dreary with sleep, met his gaze, and smiled at him.

Tim blinked, and then he was on the couch with them, snuggled up between her and Martin’s warm form beneath him. He tried to muster _something_ \- confusion, fear, distrust - but he found himself very quickly drifting to sleep, the little girl smiling sleepily at him the whole time. His eyes flickered shut once again, and then he was out.

\-----

Adelaide was a bit of a troublemaker, Martin decided, watching as she spun a laughing Tim around in circles.

The shock of her Web abilities wore off after firstly, Jon telling them that she was harmless and, secondly, the sheer amount of love he knew each of them already felt for the little girl. The three of them had had a talk last night after waking up around her, hushed whispers over tea and the eventual decision that _of course we have to keep her, Jon, are you insane?_

He heard a small _oh!_ and he looked up, a fond smile on his face as Tim tripped over his own feet and tumbled to the floor. At Adelaide’s clapping and giggling Tim rose back to his feet, lifting her in his arms. Martin’s heart softened as he watched Tim spin Addy around him, both of them laughing giddily.

_And Jon said we couldn’t have nice things._

Speak - think? - of the devil and they doth appear; the soft click of a cane on hardwood was the only warning before Martin found himself enveloped in a warm hug from behind. He chuckled as Jon buried their face into the small of Martin’s back, Jon mumbling something about tea and a crick in their neck.

Martin obliged them on the first front, carefully extracting himself from Jon’s arms to trudge into the kitchen, followed shortly by the shuffling steps of his husband.

As he filled the kettle he leaned to catch the eye of a still laughing Tim, who was now tossing Addy above his head.

“Tea?” Martin asked, voice soft in the filtering light of early morning.

Tim caught the girl deftly and turned to grin at him, replying “Always!” in a tone that was needlessly chipper for the early hour.

Jon began to rub careful circles into his back as Martin went through the comforting steps of tea brewing.

“Your knee feeling okay, Jon?” He asked, quiet over the bubbling of the kettle.

“...As good as it could be, I suppose.”

Martin chuckled at that, turning to press his palm against Jon’s scarred cheek. “Good as anything, then,” he replied, flushing as Jon melted into his touch.

“Good as anything,” Jon repeated, bemused. “Water’s ready, love.”

Seconds later his timer beeped, and he shot Jon a playfully reprimanding look as he reached for the boxes in the cupboard. He fumbled his usual box of earl grey, managing to get three bags from it without toppling the whole box into the kettle.

A few minutes and one spilled spoon of sugar later - Tim’s fault, Martin adamantly claimed, for distracting him with those stunning good looks - the three of them had warm mugs in their hands and an even warmer girl splayed across their laps. Her hands were tangled in Jon’s hair and her feet kicked gently at Martin’s thighs, Tim pressed in the middle of the two of them with a grin on his face.

“So,” Tim started, swallowing his gulp of tea. “We… have a daughter now, yeah?”

Martin spluttered mid-sip, face immediately growing warm. “Ah - Tim, we can’t just assume-”

Jon stopped him with a hand on his arm. Martin looked up to meet their eyes, sighing at the little wrinkle between Jon’s eyebrows.

“...If we did, Martin?” Jon asked, voice soft. “Would that be… would you want to…?”

He looked down at Adelaide, then back up to meet Jon’s worried smile and Tim’s puppy-dog eyes.

“...Gah, I can’t win against that, Tim.” He smiled, voice softening. “And… Yeah, I… I love her, I, we couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

“Even though she’s from Annabelle,” Jon finished, a wry grin softening their features.

“Even though she’s from Annabelle,” Martin agreed.

Tim let out a long breath of air as though he had been holding it, grinning at the two of them in turn. 

“That’s good, babes, because I was ready to run away with her if you said no-”

The tension bled out of the room as Jon let out a snort, sending both Tim and Martin into hysterics.

Once he had caught his breath Martin smiled down at Adelaide, eyes soft as he watched her chew on Jon’s hair.

“Welcome to the family, Addy.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edit: so martin is still referring to jon as his husband in this chapter even though jon uses they/them pronouns, and that's because I'm projecting my gender preferences onto jon 👨❤️💋👨


	2. The Corruption

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Addy has some fun in the mud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello LGBTQ+ community
> 
> yeah I'm... so sorry about the hiatus!!! School's been a lot for me and I'm in Not The Best Place rn so I haven't had much motivation to write, sadly. I am not abandoning this fic!!!!!! I've got rough ideas for all the chapters, I'm just working on Fleshing them out :) (ha ha)
> 
> with that said, I really hope you guys enjoy this one! I'm trying to get down Addy's character more realistically, so if anyone has tips for writing toddlers I would. Really appreciate it. Help.

* * *

Addy tugged on Tim’s trouser leg, beaming up at him when he turned to face her.

“Outside?” She asked, eyes pleading.

Tim’s heart melted and he scooped her up into his arms, spinning her around. Martin and Jon were out shopping for the week’s groceries, leaving Tim to fend off a very excitable four year old. So far, she had already asked to cut Tim’s hair, cut her own, and to (slightly hauntingly) play with the spiders in the corner of the hallway. Tim figured that, out of all of those options, outside was most definitely the safest bet.

He hefted her in his arms and tucked her carefully against his chest, matching her gap-toothed grin with his own.

“Anything for you, little lady,” he joked. She giggled in response, and he felt a swell of pride in his chest.

Their yard was nothing to write home about - better than nothing, but it got rather soggy on the damper days and was in perpetual need of re-seeding. Today the sun beat down rather pleasantly, doing its best to burn away the puddles from yesterday’s storm.

Addy squealed as soon as her feet hit the dirt, making a beeline for the nearest mud puddle. Tim winced as she planted herself into it and thoroughly splattered her frock with dirt.  _ That’ll be a lot of cleaning later, _ he thought, sighing.  _ Least she’s happy. _

He watched with a fond smile as she dug up worms, handling each one gently before placing it in a little pile next to her. As she worked on her little mud castle, Tim decided that it’d be fine to take his eyes off of her for a second - just a second! To go and fetch a lawn chair.

He found one in the garage with no fuss, dusting the cobwebs off of it as he returned to the back yard.

...and he stopped in his tracks.

Addy was standing in the center of a ring of mud, completely encircled by the worms. Snails and slugs, too, had emerged from the mud to form a second, wider ring, and as Tim watched the two rings rotated around his little girl. She was giggling happily, slowly spinning on her feet and humming a wordless song as the worms wriggled and writhed.

_ Eeyikes, _ Tim thought with a grimace, rocking back and forth on his feet.  _ I have… actually no idea what to do about this. _ Without a second thought he dug his phone out of his pocket, pulling up Jon’s contact with practiced ease.

Jon, as always, picked up on the first ring.

“Ah, that certainly is… a bit concerning,” Jon said, not even asking what was wrong. “Is she unharmed?”

“Yeah,” Tim replied, watching warily as the worms crawled merrily over Addy’s shoes. “They don’t seem to want to… hurt her? If I had to say, seems like they respect her or something.”

Jon hummed in contemplation. “Honestly,” they started, then paused. “Honestly, I expected this.” They heaved a sigh, crackling with static over the phone. “I had my suspicions of her… avatarhood.”

“That’s fine and good and we’ll talk about that later, but what should I do now?”

The worms had made their way into her pockets, and she was talking merrily to a snail sitting in her hands.

“It might be best if you talked to her about it,” Jon replied, sounding conflicted. “Perhaps ask her to stop? From what I’m Seeing, she seems to have at least some control over them.”

Tim sighed, but he was also filled with relief.  _ It’s gonna be fine. _ “Thank you, bubs. Really, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Jon chuckled over the line. “We’ll be home soon. Love you, Tim.”

“I love you too, Jon.”

The phone clicked off, and Tim turned again to face the muddy little girl before him.

He stepped carefully over the rings of worms, stopping to crouch in front of her. She looked at him with wide eyes.

“Addy, dear,” he started, contemplating his words. “I think… I think maybe the worms are tired from all the rain yesterday.” He grimaced inwardly at how dumb that sounded, but the little girl seemed to take it. She frowned, looking down at the worms in her pockets.

“Izzat true, mister worm?” She asked, holding one up to address it very seriously. The worm wriggled in her hands and her eyes began to water. “I’m sorry!” She cried, tears beginning to work their way down her face. 

Tim stepped forward to gingerly put a hand on her shoulder, wincing as a worm wriggled up between his fingers.

“Hey, hey, don’t cry. I’m sure the worms enjoyed having fun with you, but now you’ve got to let them go home, okay sweetie?”

She nodded morosely, carefully removing worms one by one from her pockets to place them in the dirt. “Night mister worm,” she said wetly. “G’night miss snail, mx slug!” Each one seemed to wiggle goodbye before digging into the soil. The slugs and snails waved antennae as well, slinking off back into the bushes and plants on the far reaches on the yard.

Once they were all gone she buried her face in Tim’s chest, gripping his back with her muddy little hands. He smiled and softly kissed the crown of her head.

“Why don’t we get you cleaned up? Your Noni and Papa are gonna be home soon, you don’t want to get them all muddy do you?”

She finally pulled away from his chest to give him a teary grin and an enthusiastic nod. He stood slowly, pulling her up with him, and carefully removed a worm from her hair.

* * *

She was damp but otherwise mud-free by the time Jon and Martin got home with the groceries, tears from earlier forgotten in her excitement over carrying the bags in. Tim watched with a smile as Martin passed her the lightest ones so she could scurry off to bring them inside.

“Everything go okay?” Jon asked, putting a gentle hand on Tim’s arm. Tim smiled in return, pulling them into a hug.

“Worms in the dirt, and our whole daughter accounted for,” he promised, eliciting a chuckle from Jon.

“We do need to… talk about this some,” Jon said, their eyebrows drawing together. “I’ve tried my best not to Look to hard at her but… it might be time to see what we can figure out.”

“It’s for her own safety,” Tim reminded them, hefting the last bag of groceries over one arm.

Jon smiled in reply, following Tim into the house to put the last of the food into the cupboard.

“I’m… actually thankful for once,” they said, smiling fondly as they watched Martin play with Addy in the living room. “I’d like to hope that this is the Web’s apology, of sorts.”

Martin looked up and caught their eyes, grinning at both of them from where Addy had managed to worm her way inside his jumper and poke her head out of the top.

“I am too,” Tim said, wrapping an arm around Jon’s shoulders. “You deserve to be happy, bubs. We all do, after what we went through.”

Jon carefully rose to their tip-toes to kiss Tim’s burnt cheek.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to avoid confusion! Jon uses they/them pronouns in this fic. I went back through rather recently to change all references to jon to the correct pronouns, so I hope it isn't too confusing. Noni is a nonbinary equivalent of daddy/papa/etc. :) please let me know if you find a place where i messed up!
> 
> next update will be... sometime? I cannot promise a soon but I can promise an Eventually, I am so sorry about the sporadicity of the updates but I am Tired


	3. The Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon takes a Look at Addy, and Tim has a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sorry for how spaced out the updates are! I am really having a terrible time of it and school has been stressing me out, so sadly I haven't had time to write as much as I want to. That being said, I've managed to create a rudimentary framework from the rest of the chapters (just like. the basic happenings and loose ideas) so I promise I WILL finish this fic eventually! Might just take a while!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Martin and Tim shuffled nervously on the couch across from Jon, watching with worried eyes as they knelt in front of Addy.

After some deliberation and several servings of soup - and the subsequent cleaning up of said soup, spilled on the counter in front of Addy - they had decided it was time for Jon to take a Look at the little girl.

(If Martin wasn’t so worried it might have been funny - the way Addy met Jon’s serious eyes with a stoic stare of her own.)

Jon let out their breath in a long puff, letting their shoulders relax. After a beat their eyes flickered open, dayglo green and glowing in the dim light of evening. Addy stayed uncharacteristically serious.

Little eyes flickered open in the air around Jon, casting the two of them in a green glow as Jon placed their hands on Addy’s shoulders.

Jon took a sharp intake of breath.

Addy’s eyes began to glow in response, starting out a pale purple and then spilling over her dark face as tiny eyes began to flicker around her in a mirror of Jon’s own.

The tension in the room was almost palpable, and the air roiled with static as parent and daughter Looked into each other’s Eyes. The green and the purple were bright enough that, for a moment, Martin had to shut his eyes, flinching back from the thin hissing of feedback in the air.

And then, suddenly, the static was gone, and Jon was smiling. They threaded a thin hand through Addy’s hair and the girl matched their grin with her own, clunky smile.

“What happened?” Martin asked, trying to keep the worry out of his voice. “Is she..?”

Jon turned to the two of them, laughter bubbling up from their chest.

“She’s…. She’s incredible. She’s… Martin she’s  _ everything. _ ”

Tim sucked in a sharp breath next to him, hands tightening on his knees. Martin hesitated in confusion for a moment, and then it hit him.

“You mean....?”

“All fourteen,” Jon confirmed. “Excluding Extinction, naturally, but.... Gods, Tim, Martin, it’s…” They let out a little wondering puff of air. “She’s something  _ new. _ She’s something… something lovely.”

Martin let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding, standing up from the couch to wrap Addy in a hug. Tim was soon to join him, although his broad grin hid a shadow of concern. Jon smiled from where they stood, content to watch.

_ What an interesting family I’ve made, _ they thought, watching their husbands embracing their daughter.

* * *

Tim sighed as he got into bed, snuggling in between Martin and Jon.

The dreams hadn’t gotten better since he left the institute, even as he grew closer to Jon. Somehow, his husband being in all of his nightmares made them no better.

As he curled up against the warmth of Martin’s side he braced himself for what he knew was to come - fire, the circus, Danny, the whirling of carousels, the wheedling notes of a calliope… and Jon standing there, taking it all in, their silhouette wreathed in eyes.

He felt Jon’s arms wrap around him, and he drifted off to sleep.

_ When his eyes flickered open, he first saw the familiar orange and red and gold of the circus around him. The horrible amalgamation of The Unknowing and Danny that plagued him every night whirled around him like a demented rollercoaster, and he set himself in for a long night. _

_ He turned as a mannequin spun past, searching for the familiar flash of green in the crowd. _

_ For once Jon wasn’t focused on him. Tim hadn’t even known that was possible, but… as he watched, Jon knelt in front of a small shadow next to them and pressed their hands on either side of its face. _

_ Tim took a step closer, and the two came into view. The figure next to Jon was similarly silhouetted but a third as tall, it’s outline wreathed by a halo of hair. Closer still and he could make out the glowing purple of it’s - her - eyes, and he stopped in his tracks as he recognized the figure. _

_ Addy. _

_ Jon and Addy whirled around at his approach, Jon relaxing when he saw it was him. Addy shied away from the flames around them as Tim approached, pressing her little face into the folds of Jon’s pyjamas. _

_ “You’re both here?” He asked, voice distorted by the overbearing heat. _

_ Jon nodded silently, Eyes squinting in what appeared to be a grimace. Their figure flickered slightly in the harsh light. _

_ [ I expected this. ] they signed, fizzing with static. [ matter of time before The Eye manifested. ] _

_ Tim nodded grimly, kneeling down until he was at level with the staticy little shape. She nearly blent into Jon’s trousers, visible only by her faint purple glow. _

_ “It’s okay,” he said softly, not knowing what else to do. These dreams were awful, and he couldn’t stand the idea of her having to witness them too. “It’ll be over soon. Noni will protect you, okay?” _

_ Jon nodded down at her in confirmation, carding a staticy hand through her hair. [ will you be okay? ] they asked, eyes softening in concern. _

_ Tim brushed it off, smiling all the while. “I’ve been through this dream hundreds of times. Nothing to do but wait it out, ey?” _

_ Jon didn’t seem convinced, eyes flickering, but they let him go, kneeling back down to further console Addy. _

_ And if Tim tried to make sure the worst of the dream happens where Addy couldn’t see it from behind Jon’s back, well, who’s to blame him? _

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please let me know if anything with the ASL and/or with the kid is wrong, I know nothing about either!
> 
> next up: The Hunt! coming.... well maybe not soon but at some point I promise
> 
> comments are so very appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Updates may be sporadic at best but I will try my hardest to get this one pumped out and finished! I love you all and every comment makes my day :)
> 
> find me on instagram at @niick.draws to bully me/ask questions about my fics or look at my art!!


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